New York Senate Finance Committee Advances Online Poker Bill; Now It Moves To The Full Senate

On Tuesday the New York Senate Finance Committee passed Sen.John Bonacic’s online poker bill, S 3898. The committee passed by a voice vote without debate or discussion. The bill now advances to the full Senate for consideration.

Two Senate committees passed the proposal this year. The Senate Racing, Gaming and Wagering Committee Bonacic chairs unanimously approved the bill back in February.

The Senate’s budget also included online poker before the New York Assembly stripped it out.

Highs and lows for NY online poker in 2016

New York’s online poker’s chances have been tough to handicap over the past two years.

In the same interview, Pretlow said all of his previous concerns about legalizing online poker were satisfied after a trip to New Jersey. With his worries abated, Pretlow indicated he would put his support behind the bill, which he believes improves its odds.

“When I do sign off on something, my colleagues feel that it is a good deal and they don’t question why I made a certain decision,” Pretlow said. “They know that if that decision was made, it’s for good reason.”

Optimistic rhetoric aside, not much has changed in the Assembly when it comes to actions. As noted above, this year’s online poker bill was included in the Senate budget. But once again, the Assembly played the role of Scrooge and removed online poker from the budget.

During this year’s budget discussions, Pretlow told Online Poker Report, “It won’t be in the final budget, I don’t believe, because there are people opposed to it who are higher than me and don’t want it in the budget.”

But Pretlow went on to tell OPR that “they” wanted to tackle online poker as a separate issue in order to fully vet the proposal, rather than include it in a larger piece of legislation.

The passage by the Senate Finance Committee is hopefully the first step in that process.

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Steve Ruddock -
Steve covers nearly every angle of online poker in his job as a full-time freelance poker writer. His primary focus for OPR is the developing legal and legislative picture for regulated US online poker and gambling.